I’m thinking of buying some sort of old machine this summer with a view to turning into a cafe style racer. What bike/ engine capacity is a good starting point as a donor for the project?

And does anyone have pics of their own cafe racers?

There are some ideas on this old thread 😀

Cafe Racer Thread

Probably my favourite bike of all time… cafe racer goldwing. Why? Because **** why.

Please don’t cut up anything classic, saw a show where they took a 750/4 and took an angle grinder to it 😯

Any size is fine 250 and up, they are meant to be fun.

Cut them old junk heaps up and make them live again
Try browsing back threw
bikeexif

Why buy an old bike with all the ensuing problems (rot, decrepitude, shortage of spares, etc.) when you could have one of these for about four grand,which is more in keeping with the original cafe racer ethos.

http://www.royal-enfield.com/motorcycles/bullet-500

how about one of these…

As much as I’d like a new, ready to run cafe style racer I did ideally want a project and the opportunity to make something that was unique and a bit more personal.

At the same time I don’t want to get a donor that is just going to be more trouble than its worth.

Wow ,that Enfield is one of the ugliest things I have seen in ages (IMO).
Edit > the 500 in the first link < edit

Need to convice my uncle to give me his Norton,then I could do something like this

Wouldn’t mind owning this lot now.

Build them, thrash them. No point otherwise.

Any Japanese bikes of a certain vintage will work fine, Honda CB500 etc. All the potential project traditional bikes (Norton etc.) are silly money now.

My view is that using something like an 80’s Jap bike is more in keeping with the original ethos whilst advancing cafe racers as a category. Something mid-80’s, twin cylinder and Japanese is what I’d go for, seen some interesting builds that started of as Yamaha Viragos and Honda CX500s.

The american forum insisted on calling this a cafe racer… Unconvinced tbh but I guess it somewhat fit the ethos. To me it’s just a naked bike… But then- fast, light, nice sounding, impervious to crashing.

Very bodgy job just to see what it looked like- no clocks, wiring loom in a carrier bag

Caff racers and bobbers are getting a bit ubiquitous these days – everyone seems to be building one.
Individuality is slowly disappearing under a slew of identikit BMW’s and Hinckley Bonnies.

All very nice, all pretty much the same.

This is nice:

And for sheer, barefaced ugly cheek, this makes me laugh out loud:

Let’s see some more 70’s style Honda/Kwak fours – where the hell did they all go?

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Let’s see some more 70’s style Honda/Kwak fours – where the hell did they all go?

theres a Honda GL1000 from about 1978 in my old mans garage, he’d kill you if you cafeised it though.

Cafe racers and bobbers – eh!

I think they are very different. Both are for pose, mind.

Bobbers are for lifestyle groupies – wannabee bike gang members and way to much OCC
Cafe racers have a real appeal. I find my self hankering after a Triumph Speed Triple circa 1993 ish …
Some of the BMW ones are really impressive , I guess the visual classic is based on the Moto Guzzi
Japanese cafe racers leave me cold – I don’t know why …

Some really lovely bikes here;
http://www.caferacerdreams.com.es/motos

They sell a lot of the parts too. I’ve been meaning to buy a bonneville to tart up for a while.

mrmoofo – Member
Cafe racers and bobbers – eh!

I think they are very different. Both are for pose, mind.

Dunno, in my day we weren’t concerned about how the bike looked, just how fast it would go – round Loch Ness was our favourite. There again we didn’t hang around a cafe – couldn’t afford luxuries like bought food, every penny went on the bike – so how it went was more important than looks.

No helmet laws, no radar, we haven’t had it so good since.

Those old “classics” were all shite apart from the Velocettes which were the only bikes that didn’t eventually disintegrate when thrashed. If I was doing a cafe racer now I’d start with something Japanese about 10 years not some old tatt.